Vargas to introduce anti-child trafficking bill

San Diego  Rep. Juan Vargas of San Diego announced plans Monday to introduce a bill in Congress that would strengthen laws against child sex trafficking.

The Child Protection Act of 2012, or Hazel’s Law, would remove a requirement that prosecutors have to demonstrate that an accused sex trafficker knew that the victim was a minor.

“It’s nearly an impossible feat,” Vargas said Monday at a news conference held outside the Hall of Justice in downtown San Diego.

He said the law would prevent child sex traffickers from getting lighter sentences because their knowledge of the victim’s age could not be proved in court.

The bill, co-authored by Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, will be introduced Tuesday. Vargas is a Democrat, and his district includes the southern portion of San Diego County, Imperial County and all of the California’s border with Mexico.

A woman identified as Hazel C., 20, appeared with Vargas at the news conference. The bill is named for her; she was 17 when she was abducted in January 2010 and held for nine months by a man who forced her and others to earn $1,000 a day.

Although authorities at the news conference did not reveal the defendant’s name, Hazel said her abductor was prosecuted and sentenced in December 2011 to 30 years in federal prison.

“I know first hand that slavery is not dead here in America,” she told a gathering of reporters outside the courthouse Monday.

She said one of the difficulties in the case involving her captor was proving that he knew she was a minor. She called the bill “an amazing step in the right direction.”

According to the FBI’s website, human trafficking is one of the world’s fastest growing criminal activities, generating billions of dollars of profit each year. The agency investigates human trafficking as a priority under its civil rights program, but it also crosses into other investigative areas, including organized crime, crimes against children and gangs.